


Hulk and Kitten

by BairnSidhe



Series: Fluff World [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Kittens, Service Animals, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 14:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3491480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BairnSidhe/pseuds/BairnSidhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony adopt a shelter's worth of cats and tries to get the team to take them.  Bruce is reluctant, but the Hulk has Opinions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hulk and Kitten

**Author's Note:**

> For Tayefeth who asked for kitties. I hope this lives up to your hopes.

It was Tony’s fault.  Not Steve, for once.  But Tony had gotten insomnia and watched a documentary about shelter cats and the lack of funding and the commonness of euthanasia, and in a semi-drunk, half asleep state sent a quarter of a million to the most local no-kill shelter and at 6 am arranged to adopt all the cats from the local shelter that euthanized.  Jarvis would normally stop midnight donations, but he rather approved of this one.

So, as Bruce was doing his morning stretches in the lab, with Leto sitting patently until he would throw the ball, a hoard of cats came running in.  Leto thought this was great, until one of the cats bopped her nose.

“STEVE!” Bruce bellowed.

“Actually not Steve, this time,” Tony said as he casually strolled into the lab with a marmalade tom on his shoulders and a tabby in his arms.  “I’m gonna find them all good homes.  I couldn’t risk any precious little kitties getting k-i-l-l-e-d.  I thought I’d start with family then see if Sam’s VA buddies want them.”

A lean, rangy kitten had latched onto Bruce’s pant leg.  It had half a body and face of pure black and another of orange and white.  It climbed his pants until it was in his lap and he checked the sex.  She yowled rather indignantly at the undignified procedure.

“Sorry, princess,” Bruce murmured to her.  “You realize we can’t keep all of them in the lab, right?”

“No, of course not, just the special ones.  That one over there is for Thor,” he said pointing to a positively huge orange cat.  “Norwegian Forrest Cat; thought he’d like her.”

“Completely orange cats are male, Tony, that’s a him, not a her.”

“Well, anyway.  The all black one is for Natasha, and the white one with the black eye spots is for Steve.”

“Have you asked any of these people if they want a cat?”

“Don’t be silly; Thor and Steve are practically Disney princesses.  They’ll love it.”

“What about Natasha?”

“That…I hadn’t quite thought through.”

“What about me?  And why is the lab full of cats?”

“Can you kindly make sound when you walk?” Tony squawked.  Then he went to rub his neck and ended up petting the tom.  “Well, I kind of watched a documentary…”

“Say no more.  I know how you are.  I suppose you want me to take one of the little fur balls?”

“The black one in the corner,” Tony said, pointing.  “The one sitting half on top of Steve’s cat.”

“I suppose cats do possess more grace and dignity than dogs, and I put up with Leto just fine.  Let me just see if she’s amenable to the arrangement.”

Natasha walked up to the two cats.  The one designated as Steve’s immediately started curling around her feet.  The black cat eyed her warily, sniffed the proffered hand and chirped.

“Liho says she’s good with it.”

“You speak cat?” Tony asked, incredulous.

“I have many talents,” she said cryptically as she scooped up Liho and the as-yet unnamed cat for Steve and took them out of the lab.  Liho perched on her shoulder like a slightly more regal version of a parrot, and Steve’s cat flopped gracelessly over one arm.

Clint came looking for Leto, and wound up going back to his floor with a grey and white kitten with spots of pinky-orange that had adopted the large dog.  Bucky named her Vesna, meaning spring in Russian.

The lean half and half kitten still hadn’t left Bruce.  In fact, she was now draped across his shoulders purring as he did his calculations.  It was soothing.  As resolved as he had been about staying out of Tony’s craziness, he did feel a kinship to the cat, half bad luck and half gentle sweet thing that kneaded his shoulder.  But it might not be safe for him to have a cat.  What if he Hulked out?

Three days later, most of the hoard of cats was gone.  Thor’s cat, named Styrke, stayed mostly in his rooms, as did Liho and Spots (Steve was not good at names).  Vesna went wherever Leto went, and Sam’s Eagle was glued to his side most days.  Almost all the other cats had been adopted by Sam’s VA buddies, but Bruce still had his little half and half lab partner.  Then something went boom, and Bruce went Hulk.

His first coherent thought beyond rage was to check on his kitten.  Gently he scooped her up in big green hands and held her to his chest.  She sniffed him, licked his chest with a rough sandpaper tongue and curled up to purr.  The purring put him right to sleep and if it weren’t for the video evidence provided by Jarvis, nobody would have believed that the Hulk sleeping with a kitten on him could be as adorable as it was.

When Bruce de-hulked, he signed the registration papers adopting Jekyll that Tony had held ready for days in preparation for Bruce giving in.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm here: http://bairnsidhe.tumblr.com/
> 
> Fluff World prompts are always open.


End file.
